A New Mexico judge on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion penalty for misleading Facebook users about data privacy.
The judgment is related to the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal from nearly 10 years ago.
The jury found that Meta had more than 40 million violates of New Mexico’s unfair practices act.
CNBC reported:
Meta was ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties by a New Mexico court on Wednesday as part of a data privacy case that stemmed from the company’s Cambridge Analytica scandal from nearly a decade ago.
The penalty, revealed in a court filing, comes after a jury in a Santa Fe courthouse found in September the social media giant liable for misleading state citizens about how it safeguards and collects user data and prevents harmful information from flourishing on its services.
Although the jury concluded that Meta had over 43 million violations of the state’s unfair practices act, with each transgression carrying a civil penalty as high as $5,000, a New Mexico judge was responsible for determining the ultimate fine. The Wednesday filing showed that the state was awarded $219.5 billion, but the penalty was ultimately reduced to $25 billion.